At this time of year, all I want to eat are hearty, warming, comforting foods, like cottage pie, stews, pasta bakes and chilli. (This “phase” usually lasts from October until around Easter). This particular dish combines three of my favourite things: leek, potatoes (in the form of gnocchi) and cheese. It was actually supposed to be a recipe for gnocchi with vegetables in a creamy cheese sauce, but somewhere between doing the shopping and starting to cook, I managed to lose my courgette! It’s on the receipt, but it’s not in my kitchen. How on earth does one lose a courgette?! So I had a rummage in my fridge and improvised with a packet of Wiener-type sausages instead. Sorry vegetarians – my original recipe would have been for you!
Gnocchi with leek and sausages in a creamy cheese sauce
Ingredients (serves 2)
Butter (for frying)
400 g gnocchi
1 garlic clove
1 leek
4 Wiener (or Frankfurter, if that’s what you want to call them) sausages OR one large courgette/zucchini
1 pot of cream
Cheddar or other strong cheese (I used Swiss mountain cheese this time, because that’s what I had)
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Cayenne pepper
Method
1. Heat some butter in a frying pan. While it’s heating, chop your garlic into smallish pieces then fry it in the butter.
2. Put some water on to boil in a pan. Chop the leek – I usually cut off fairly thick slices then quarter the slices – then place the it in the frying pan with the garlic. (If using courgette/zucchini, you should also dice that it this point and put it in the pan at the same time as the leek).
3. Chop the sausages into bite-sized pieces.
4. Once the water has boiled, pour in the gnocchi and boil it for as long as the instructions for your brand say to (usually until bits start to float)
5. Drain the gnocchi then add it to the frying pan along with the sausages. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
6. Pour the cream into the frying pan, stir it in and heat for a bit until it and the sausages are warmed though. Grate the cheese over the mixture, pausing every once in a while to stir it in. Keep adding cheese until the cream/cheese mixture forms a thick sauce/you think there’s enough (personally, I like a lot of cheese!). Stir in a pinch of cayenne pepper. Also add more salt/black pepper if you think it needs it.
7. Enjoy carbs covered in melty, cheesy goodness (see photo of the final product at the top).
Confuzzledom 
Oh my goodness, that looks and sounds delicious! I’ve never in my life heard of courgette, so I’ll have to look that up though I’d want meat in the dish anyway. Thanks for sharing! Yum yum…
Courgette is Zucchini in America (and Germany!)
Is this the post you’d lost? If so I’m glad you found it because this looks yum!! Must give it a go! (As it happens I also had a sausage & leek casserole last night!)
Yes, this is the one I lost. We’re having sausage casserole tonight… with red wine because we have a not very nice bottle that I need to get rid of somehow 😉
That poor lonely courgette…. could have been left out there in the cold.
I once lost a bunch of spring onions and an entire big pad of post-its. I feel your pain.
I definitely need to try this, what cream did you use?
Just single cream. It’s called “Shchlagsahne” in German, which means whipping cream.